Claude Frizzel Bloodgood (born Klaus Frizzel Bluttgutt III) was born in La Paz, Mexico on July 14, 1937 (some sources say he was born in 1924). He was the author of The Tactical Grob,Blackburne-Hartlaub Gambit (1.d4 e5 2.dxe5 d6), and Nimzovich Attack: The Norfolk Gambits. In the late 1950's, he was editor of the Virginia Chess News Roundup and the rating statistician for the Virginia State Chess Association. In 1958, he started the All Service Postal Chess Club (ASPCC). In 1970 he was sentenced to death for strangling his mother to death in 1969, apparently in a fight about an inheritance and bad-check charges. While on death row, he played over 2,000 postal games simultaneously. The postage was paid by the State of Virginia. He was scheduled for execution 6 times, but received a reprieve each time. Then in 1972, the Supreme Court suspended capital punishment in the United States, and Bloodgood's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. That same year, the state stopped paying postage for correspondence chess. He was allowed to play in chess tournaments outside the prison, accompanied by a guard. In 1974, Bloodgood escaped after he and another chess player (Lewis Capleaner, a murderer inmate) overpowered a guard (George Winslow) who was escorting them to a chess tournament. When Bloodgood was recaptured after several weeks, his correspondence privilege was taken away from him. His escape led to the resignation of Virginia's director of prisons, and the Virginia Penitentiary Chess program was dismantled.

In 1996 he was the 2nd highest USCF ranked player in the country (2702), just behind Gata Kamsky. His actual strength was almost certainly much less, as he is believed to have exploited the rating system by organizing chess tournaments and matches in prison against opponents who could easily be bribed, manipulated, and were at any rate far from top-level competition. From 1993 to 1999, he played 3,174 rated chess games, winning over 91 percent of them.

He participated in the 15th U.S. Correspondence Championship, which began in June, 2000, scoring 3 wins and 9 losses (he died before finishing his last game). He passed away in the hospital of the Powhatan Correctional Center near Richmond, Virginia on August 4, 2001.

andrewjsacks: <Zanzibar> "Not really Acers' problem, per se." Interesting take on it. No, not his "problem," that there was a glitch in the rating system that permitted unethical use of it. His only "problem" was that he did so to such an almost incredible extent that the USCF had to modify several rules.

Howard: Zanzibar's point was basically made in that Inside Chess article. Bloodgood was exploiting an anomaly when it came to playing unrated players in a CLOSED rating pool. That's how his rating got so ridiculously high.

john barleycorn: <Howard> and according to that article the key weakness in the USCF rating system was that (other than in the FIDE rating) your rating would increase always if you would beat the same weak players a hundred times and more.

Well, not much I can say to your response, extremely generous as it is to him. I do suggest you attempt to research it, for example an article, easy to access, by Sam Sloan. There are others too. Anyway, you are a gentleman to attempt to exonerate Mr. Acers. We can respectfully disagree on the point.

Bubo bubo: Never heard of this guy before! With that eerie name clearly a suitable <POTD> for Halloween, although Thomas Luther
could have been an alternative in view of today being the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's posting of his 95 theses to that churchdoor at Wittenberg...

Richard Taylor: He must have had quite some ability at chess all the same, and he was enthusiastic for sure. Terrible that he killed his own mother if that is what happened. A strange, eerie and tragic tale for him and his mother and others.

zanzibar: The bio above, while plausible (if not even likely), is inaccurate if not including the alternative explanation of his high rating - i.e. closed pool effects.

From wiki:

<This is all a matter of considerable controversy even today. Bloodgood himself vehemently denied these accusations, and said that he played chess in the only competitions available to him, prison tournaments, and won almost every game because he was the strongest player in the prison system. As his rating rose, he wrote the USCF to warn them that its system was prone to "closed pool" ratings inflation. But nothing was done until Bloodgood's rating skyrocketed. Virtue of his high rating, Bloodgood would have qualified for entry into the U.S. Chess Championship, a prestigious invitation-only event intended for the best 16 players in the country. This caused an investigation by the USCF, which debated extensively what to do about the situation. In the end, Bloodgood wasn't invited to the event (which he could not have attended anyway), and the USCF changed its ratings system rules to attempt to prevent "closed pool" ratings inflation.>

Look, the guy supposedly wrote a letter to the USCF to warn of the effect, before his peak rating was obtained. That should be noted (and possibly verified). Regardless, it appears that the USCF itself was uncertain what to do - and didn't outright ban him.

The sax player only received a one-time check for £27 for his iconic sax.

<Ravenscroft's fee was, reportedly, a cheque for £27, which he said bounced anyway and was framed and hung on his solicitor's wall. He received no further payment for his session-playing, adding: "If I had received pots of money, I wouldn't have known what to do. It might have destroyed me.">

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